Boeing Resumes Talks With Union

Talks between Boeing and the union representing its engineers and technicians, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), were scheduled to resume today.

According to an update on SPEEA's website, negotiators from both sides are scheduled to sit down at a SeaTac hotel at 1 p.m. Pacific time to try again to hammer out an agreement on major contract issues. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will be helping the two sides work on contracts covering some 23,000 employees. Existing contracts expired Nov. 25.

To date, there's been little movement on either side, with Boeing last reported to be demanding union members swallow a reduction in the rate of salary increases, pay more toward the cost of employee health insurance, and begin transitioning from a system of defined pension benefits to one emphasizing individual 401(k) plans. SPEEA is insisting Boeing share more of the wealth from a year in which the company has reported its biggest profits ever.